Welding is a common way to join similar and dissimilar materials in a wide range of industries, including consumer electronics, home products and appliances, farming, construction equipment, transportation systems, and the like.
The dissimilar materials can include dissimilar metals, dissimilar polymers, or combinations of polymers and metals. The manufacturer can select favorable characteristics, such as being lightweight, highly-conformable or shapeable, strong, durable, or having a desired texture or color by combining some polymer or composite materials with other materials. An article of manufacture may include various components (exterior, interior, or decorative features) where materials are selected and configured to withstand a hot and/or chemically aggressive environment or for painting or chemical resistance over time.
With the increased use of polymers and other low-mass materials, compression molding and post-mold joining techniques, such as laser welding and ultrasonic welding, are also being used more commonly. Some workpieces, including polymer composites, have relatively low melting points, and some workpieces, including metals, have relatively high conductivity. Whether welding one or both types of workpiece, it is difficult and in many cases impossible to join the workpieces at a target interface accurately, quickly, and with minimal melting of other portions of the workpieces.
In addition, some conventional approaches require undesirably high welding cycle times, including time to make the weld. Conventional welding techniques also lack means to rapidly heat workpieces being joined or cool workpieces recently joined, or at least a joined interface—that is, by a significant degree of temperature in a short amount of time. Moreover, conventional welding equipment, itself, would benefit from an improved heating and/or cooling system, configured and arranged to heat or cool at least one component of the equipment becoming heated during operation.